About Sylvester Henry Earl

Mormon Pioneer

"...Earl, Sylvester H. – (5th Ten) Born Aug. 15, 1815, to Joseph and Dorcas Wixom Earl in Ohio. He was baptized in February 1837. After his baptism, he began performing missionary labors in surrounding states until 1842 when he and his family moved to Hancock Co., Ill., in a village called Morley's Settlement, near Nauvoo. On the trip west, he was a member of the gun crew that hauled a cannon and held occasional drills. On his return trip to Winter Quarters, Earl described having 17 horses stolen, but he was able to purchase 16 from Indians. "While detained there, we became destitute of food and I, in the company of Horace Thornton, went to a small band of Indians and sold he shirt off my back for some meat. I then took my wagon cover and cut and made me another." He returned to Utah with his family, and in the fall of 1851, moved to the Nineteenth Ward. The following year, he began a two-year mission in England. In 1861, he moved to Pine Valley at the head of the Santa Clara River where he purchased a share in a sawmill. He died July 23, 1873, at age 57 in Middleton, Washington Co., Utah..."